Dear President,

Drunk driving is a major problem facing the United States. Drunk driving laws need to be more strict, and first time offenders need to have harsher punishments, such as jail time instead of just a small fine and getting your licenses restricted.

Hundreds of thousands of people are pulled over for drunk driving every year. In 2014 almost ten thousand people were killed because of drunk drivers. People think that nothing could ever happen to them but the fact is that one person driving under the influence endangers everyone around him or her. My mom is a teacher at Waterford Halfmoon school and one of her former students was just killed in a drunk driver car crash a few weeks ago. Her name was Paige Ahearn, she was 18 years old. When she was driving home she was hit by a driver that had hit two other cars and then crossed the median and hit two more including Paige’s car.

The United States needs to do something about this. You need to make the penalties harsher for drunk drivers even if it is the first time because that first time could be the time that they kill someone.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration fatal alcohol-impaired crashes went down 1.4% from 2013 to 2014. But that is still not enough. What if you or one of your loved ones was in car crash because of a drunk driver? Would you think that a small fine and maybe getting their license restricted was a proper punishment?

Thanks for your time. Sincerely,

Mason Ford